Mist

A Helping Hand

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The base being utilized as a shelter for the lucky civilians who didn't get killed. I sit down on a cold makeshift bench in a room full of civilians. “Mist is under invasion,” a strange voice says from the crowd. A soldier walks from a locked door, a short person with a fair, clean face. Part of his hair covers his left eye. He moves it to the side and clears his throat. “The pseudo capital of Mist has been invaded and could not be taken back. Now, we must request that all of you help take Mist back!” He says with excitement. The crowd erupts with cheers. I can't help but clap.

“Don't you worry about a thing everyone, a small human fleet will send reinforcements to us.” He makes a punching motion and the crowd eats it up. “Nearby human planets have already offered their support. But, for now, we need to try to hold Mist on our own. The moment we control the space around Mist, we’ll be able to get reinforcements. Until then, we can't lose Mist.”

“Who is our enemy?” A man screams.

“Is it Empiric idiots?” A women shouts. The crowd erupts in laughter and cheers.

“It’s a group of many species called Unity, and also another group of species called Vendetta. They are composed to many different councils that formed coalition to fight the magnificent giant called humanity.” he holds out the humanity as the crowd starts to dance. He dances too. “Lets go fight! Get in line to become a true warrior.” He laughs and the people run up to get in a line.

    “The Warriors are a popular form of military, but never use drafts. It’s all your own choice. The Warriors have several branches, each trained to fight but specialized with a specific issue to improve the human race. They are creatively named after the color of their armor and consist of:” A soldier muffles under his mask. It takes off its mask and says “Here are the choices that you probably never heard of before.” she says sarcastically. “Whitecoats equal Invasions, Blackcoats equal Spying and conning.” she yawns and continues. “Orangecoats equal Discovering planets and making them livable, there is no need for orange coats, so don't try to join them.” she gestures something on the tablet she is holding. “Or Yellowcoats either, you die of disease here, then sorry.” She looks at me and she says “Redcoats equal causing terrorism and destroying infrastructure of an alien species.” She continues to walk down the line of people excited to join the warriors. “Blue coats equal helping other species. Greycoats go to space, pinkcoats deal with terrorism, dont care, brown coats aren't helpful in this situation and we don't have a green coat trainer.” She yawns and starts to repeat the coats again…

    The line is huge and slow, a lady comes up to me, she is the lady I saved “My name is Risu, what is yours.” I smile at her greeting and offer my hand. Her hair is messy and her teeth slightly jet out, she is built like a tank and the uniform she is wearing is tight around the arms. Her hand squeezes my hand tightly and she dictates the shaking motion. “I don't always get saved by a squishy.” she giggles. “This is why you shouldn't join these warriors, they are pricks who are only here for the money not to help humanity.”

“I always wanted to join the warriors” I say

“Like I said, they are pricks, but I will be surprised if you become a warrior.” She leans back with a huge smile and prepares her hand up in the air. “Because you suck at shooting any darn thing.” she hits me slightly. She looks around, and stares me in the face. “The Red terrors don't teach you to shoot, just explode stuff, I suggest that if anything.” she nods and walks off.

The base already has nine lines outside of people planning to join the Warriors, one line for each coat. Whitecoats have the longest line and Redcoats have the shortest. After a few minutes, I make it to the front, which is in a small circular room with a black line around it. A stern-faced man studies me, snaps his fingers, and looks me over even more sternly. I’m starting to get a little scared here. He points left and I walk into a room full of people.

A bunch of people stand around, all slightly smaller than me, which makes me feel really awkward. It doesn’t help that none of them are talking or doing anything, they’re just standing. I'm becoming increasingly scared, so I whisper to the nearest person, “What's happening?” The only reply I hear is, “We are waiting.” I shrug and do the same as everybody else.

A man strolls in. I don't even catch a glimpse of his face before he yells, “Everyone take one of these, put it on, then just lay on the ground comfortably!” Now that's not suspicious. I’m handed a headset. I follow his orders and place the contraption over my eyes before I flop onto the floor. Guess it's time for a simulation.

The world is dark until text flickers onto the screen saying “Plant explosives. Don’t get caught.” I appear in a dark corner, silently watching as aliens walk around the huge room of bright lights and techno gizmos that seem to be for form not practicality. I have a machine gun and a knife. I rush out and start shooting. The aliens are all civilians and have no defenses. I go quickly to the bomb-planting location and I place it.

Then, my equipment remains, but the scene changes. The quest now: to destroy a weapon. Judging by the tight corridors and even more technology and architecture with no practicality and for aesthetic purposes, my guess is that we’re on a Warship. I attempt to sneak throughout the area, occasionally getting caught and having to start over. My plan is to blow up the ship, not the weapon. And I do, causing meltdown in the engine room, leading several other components of the warship to explode.

The next mission has lower graphics. I start out in a human warship, standing with a whole bunch of other humans in white armor. “Strange for a Redcoat simulation,” I whisper to myself. A 3 appears on my visor. “Countdowns, great,” I also whisper. A 1 flashes on my visor as the doors open on the warship and we all charge forward. I’m in the middle of the charge, so I don't see any action, but gunshots and explosions ring out abundantly.

Several soldiers duck behind the cover of an exploded tank, and I decide it'd be a smart idea to join them. They lean over the tank and start firing again. A bullet pierces through the tank and into one of the guys. Blood shoots out of his visor.

I get up and start to run before a bullet hits my leg. I fall down in pain, muttering cusses while I search for a spot to crawl too. I slowly make my way towards a rock. Soil pelts my helmet from a nearby explosion. A human tank creeps towards me. I crawl faster to get out of its way before it begins rolling at full speed. I try to stand up. My leg doesn’t want to work. I glance at the tank, feel a quick pressure in my stomach, and then blackness.

    I wake up and I'm covered in sweat, breathing loudly, still down on the floor. I look around and nobody else is on the floor. I lay down on the floor again and sleep. I want to sleep. I deserve sleep.